This came up multiple times in conversations this week both online and in person (the life of a religion writer), and it's something to contemplate: in spite of Pope Francis, is the Catholic church in America getting worse in terms of how it treats LGBTQ people and women? And will the incoming generation of priests, many of whom have huge egos and are obsessed with clericalism, further rob lay people of the little agency they once had? On the one hand, the priest shortage means lay people will continue to do more (mostly unpaid work); on the other, the authoritarian nature of most bishops means that priests will have the final say as to what that work looks like and how it functions. I don't have any answers here, more of a question for those of you who have opinions: what will the America church look like in 10, 20, 30 years? And what, if anything, can be done to turn that around? ....

Probably nothing, given we lay people have absolutely no voice in the church and that those few priests who do speak up for us, like Fr. Roy Bourgeois, are crushed and discarded by the hierarchy.